On the same 28th of August the following telegram was sent to Mr. Stanton by Major-General Baird, then (owing to the absence of General Sheridan) in command of the military at New Orleans: 

  Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON,
    Secretary of War: 

A convention has been called, with the sanction of Governor Wells, to meet here on Monday.  The lieutenant-governor and city authorities think it unlawful, and propose to break it up by arresting the delegates.  I have given no orders on the subject, but have warned the parties that I could not countenance or permit such action without instructions to that effect from the President.  Please instruct me at once by telegraph.

The 28th of August was on Saturday.  The next morning, the 29th, this dispatch was received by Mr. Stanton at his residence in this city.  He took no action upon it, and neither sent instructions to General Baird himself nor presented it to me for such instructions.  On the next day (Monday) the riot occurred.  I never saw this dispatch from General Baird until some ten days or two weeks after the riot, when, upon my call for all the dispatches, with a view to their publication, Mr. Stanton sent it to me.

These facts all appear in the testimony of Mr. Stanton before the Judiciary Committee in the impeachment investigation.

On the 30th, the day of the riot, and after it was suppressed, General Baird wrote to Mr. Stanton a long letter, from which I make the following extract: 

SIR:  I have the honor to inform you that a very serious riot has occurred here to-day.  I had not been applied to by the convention for protection, but the lieutenant-governor and the mayor had freely consulted with me, and I was so fully convinced that it was so strongly the intent of the city authorities to preserve the peace, in order to prevent military interference, that I did not regard an outbreak as a thing to be apprehended.  The lieutenant-governor had assured me that even if a writ of arrest was issued by the court the sheriff would not attempt to serve it without my permission, and for to-day they designed to suspend it.  I inclose herewith copies of my correspondence with the mayor and of a dispatch which the lieutenant-governor claims to have received from the President.  I regret that no reply to my dispatch to you of Saturday has yet reached me.  General Sheridan is still absent in Texas.

The dispatch of General Baird of the 28th asks for immediate instructions, and his letter of the 30th, after detailing the terrible riot which had just happened, ends with the expression of regret that the instructions which he asked for were not sent.  It is not the fault or the error or the omission of the President that this military commander was left without instructions; but for all omissions, for all errors, for all failures to instruct when instruction might have averted this calamity, the President was openly and persistently held responsible.  Instantly, without waiting for proof, the delinquency of the President was heralded in every form of utterance.  Mr. Stanton knew then that the President was not responsible for this delinquency.  The exculpation was in his power, but it was not given by him to the public, and only to the President in obedience to a requisition for all the dispatches.